Category Archives: Family

Confusing Communication

Last night we had a small party to celebrate Quinn’s graduation from the U of M. At the risk of being a parental braggart, one semester early with a double major. I’m very proud of her. She majored in Art and Art History, her concentration in Art was ceramics. Naturally she has compiled quite a collection of pottery over the last few years and she wasn’t quite sure what she wanted to do with it. So she put out some of her pieces and we told the guests to help themselves before they left. Part of the collection was made up of simple thrown cylinders that she had done as a technical exercise in one of her early classes. Even though they are more practice pieces than anything else, some are very attractive. She told me that almost everyone that selected a cylinder asked her if they could drink coffee out of them. We decided that they meant that in a chemical sense, not an aesthetic sense. “They’re not mugs, they’re cylinders. When you make a mug you think about the handle and the lip and how the liquid will flow out of it and all those form follows function kind of decisions. So, yes, you can safely drink coffee out of them, just so I don’t have to see you do it.”

Another communication pitfall occurred this morning. I asked my wife if she worked next week. “You mean this week?”

It’s Sunday, right? This is the weekEND, right. So it’s the end of this week. Tomorrow is Monday and the beginning of next week right. Am I wrong on this??

Merry Christmas

Or the felicitations of whatever way you choose to celebrate the Winter Solstice. The family, Lucia, her bf David, Quinn and Rebecca are curled up around the artificial fire, by the artificial Christmas tree watching a Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist, which is not a movie about a wise guy Greek detective, his equally smart ass wife and  their dog Asta, or about my great nephew and niece, who are also Greek, in part.

My daughters have grown up. They aren’t mean to each other anymore, there hasn’t been a single fight. In fact they seem to be goading each other into hysterical laughter most of the time. This is even considering we’ve been pretty much housebound because of the blizzard.

Everyone love there presents, the young folks made a snowman while I wrestled the snowblower through heavy snow. I threw a rib roast in the oven and it’s fragrance is starting to fill the house. I got a subscription to “Cook’s Illustrated” for Christmas and they had a rib roast recipe in the issue they gave me… but I didn’t follow it. It included Yorkshire pudding, which I just didn’t have the ambition to attempt.

Things are good here, hope they are for you too.

Dead Flowers

deadflowerOne of the options I’ve been pursuing is to become a rock star. Well you never know until you try, right? Seriously, I’ve been putting in some major wood shedding (hep-cat musician speak for “practice”) and have been seeing some gradual improvement in my playing. I’ve been a closet guitar player for forty years, noodling away in private, rarely playing with anyone else, never really learning any songs, just improvising away on the blues and lately some old time country and rockabilly things. I’m not particularly talented as a musician, but I’m determined. And I have a really bad case of stage fright. I’ve attended open jams and when I get called out to solo, it’s deer in the headlights time. My fingers turn to stone, I can’t remember the key we’re in, or where to start. I’ve sat there, sweating for four measures of an eight measure break. I can practice a piece for hours, play it fairly well in private, but if I have one person watching me I just can’t pull it off.

Lately I’ve been getting together to make music with a young woman who I met at a neighbor’s house last summer. Continue reading Dead Flowers